When installing pipeline systems, for example in the case of building service related water supply, pipes must often be connected to further pipes, valves, distribution elements, etc. These connections must on the one hand be leak-proof and secure, on the other hand they must exhibit a long durability as the exchanging of connections causes high work outlay and high costs, particularly in the case of flush-mounted pipe systems. At the same time, such a connection should also be simple and quick to install, however.
In the prior art, connecting elements are known to this end, using which pipes can be connected in such a manner that after insertion of the pipes into the connecting element, a force is exerted onto the connecting element from outside and thus the connection of pipe and connecting element is achieved by pressing.
These connecting elements have the disadvantage that an additional tool is required to exert the pressing force. This can lead to the situation that such connecting elements can not be used on account of the lack of space for the additional tool.
Furthermore, connectors are known from the prior art, in the case of which a pipe is inserted into the connector and the pipe is held in the connector by fixing means without pressing of the connector and the pipe from the outside having to take place. In the prior art, an O ring is often arranged between the connector and the pipe as a sealing element to seal the connection. To install such connectors, the pipe must first be cut to length, deburred, chamfered from the outside and calibrated in relation to the connector, before it can be inserted into the connector. The deburring and chamfering are required in this case so that the sealing element is not damaged by the edge of the pipe end or pushed out of the intended position. These connectors therefore have the disadvantage that they require a multiplicity of work steps on the pipe before the pipe can be inserted into the connector.
These connectors additionally have the disadvantage that they have a less reliable and less long lasting leak-proofness than the connections achieved with pressed connecting elements as the sealing elements are pressed, tensioned or fixed in some other manner between the pipe and connector less strongly. Furthermore, the pipe is only moderately stabilized by the fixing means, so that undesirably large shifts between pipe and connector can occur, principally in the case of pressure surges in the pipe.
In the prior art, connectors are furthermore known whose fixing means have metal cutting edges pointing in the direction of the end of the inserted pipe, which metal cutting edges cut into the pipe material.
These metal cutting edges have the disadvantage that they cut deeper and deeper into the pipe material in the event of strong pressure surges and thus in the event of movements of the pipe in the connector and can thus locally perforate or even shear off the pipe.